Watchdog Urges Investigation Into Alleged Police Violence Against Protester
The Rule of Law Centre, a watchdog organization, calls on the Prosecutor’s Office and the Special Investigation Service (SIS) to thoroughly investigate allegations of police violence against Anatoli Gigauri, a participant in the November 24 protest near the Georgian Parliament, who was charged with assaulting a police officer.
The Rule of Law Centre outlined three reported episodes of alleged violence during Gigauri’s arrest, including verbal insult and a punch by a police officer; he was then stopped as he drove his car, with two other individuals and was stopped by the riot police and allegedly physically assaulted, leaving him with bleeding face; Gigauri claims that after he was then taken to the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ main division several police officers assaulted him, and the patrol inspector for whose alleged assault he had been arrested, also assaulted him in the presence of other police officers.
The organization has urged the relevant agencies to promptly collect crucial evidence, such as video footage from the involved officer’s body cameras and surveillance cameras at the police stations where Gigauri was detained. The Rule of Law Centre also stressed the need for equal treatment under the law, demanding that police violence be investigated with the same urgency as when citizens are accused of assaulting officers.
The Center expressed concern that the law enforcement agencies react and provide information to the public only in cases involving alleged violations by protest participants, “and not when protest participants themselves become victims of violence.”
Anatoli Gigauri was arrested on November 25 and was charged under the first paragraph of Article 353 Prima of the Criminal Code of Georgia, which pertains to “assault on police officers or other representatives of the authorities or on a public institution.” Despite these allegations and physical evidence of his injuries, Gigauri was placed in pretrial detention on November 26.
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